Crown Prince Haakon has a degree from Berkeley, and one from London School of Economics. One would presume that he's fluent in English. Actually both him and his sister had an English nanny when they were young, after having asked for it themselves, so that they could learn the language for speaking with guests.

King Harald and his sisters were in the same situation as Queen Beatrix and her sisters during the war, exile. Harald, Ragnhild and Astrid all went to American schools while they were there. Furthermore, King Harald studied at Oxford later in life.

I know that Danish Royals are fluent in English like Greeks (btw. how is they Spanish?). I watch them on Discovery's programme - it was European Royal Families or smth like that. There was few other royals - Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte and prince and princess from Germany, Russia, Greece.

King Abdullah is fluent in English too. Few months ago there was a TV programme about Arabian History in 20th century.

United KingdomHM the Queen - English and FrenchHRH the Duke of Edinburgh - English, French, and possibly some GermanHRH the Prince of Wales - English and WelshHRH the Princess Royal - English and possibly French

SwedenHM the King - Swedish and EnglishHM the Queen - Swedish, English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and I believe sign language, but I am not positive.

NorwayHM the King - Norwegian and EnglishHM the Queen - Norwegian and English

SpainHM the King - Spanish, English, possibly French, and I read Catalan. He probably speaks some Portuguese and Italian as well.HM the Queen - Greek, Spanish, English, French, and possibly German and Italian

BTW, I am British and I am not criticising the RF just for the sake of it. I genuinely feel that the GB are terrible at languages and considering globlisation etc this will prove to be a huge handicap and the RF esp the young ones are not setting high standards. We have just been lucky because of US dominance and hence been able to get away with just speaking one language.

Still, I think the British linguistic abilities are heads and shoulders above most Americans. I think the British and American failure to understand the need to be at least bi-lingual has much to do not only with a common history but also with relative geographic isolation. Continental Europeans have much more of a need to speak more than one language and their education starts early. Bravo for them.

When most people immigrated to the United States during the 19th & 20th centuries, they were forced to speak English (or at least their children were). I know that my grandparents isolated themselves in an Italian immigrant neighborhood and as a result my father and his siblings grew up in an Italian speaking world until they went to school (and it was a sink or swim situation) and then served as my grandparents' translators. My grandparents spoke limited English -- most of which they learned from their children, radio, and later television. My generation wasn't raised to be bi-lingual because there was a sense of shame that was attached to speaking Italian: it marked you as not "American." And all they wanted to be was "American." I feel like I missed out on something special -- a way of preserving my heritage. :(

Of course, I learned Italian in school by choice but I learned Florentinian Italian in high school & college (along with French, and a couple of semesters of German) which really doesn't resemble the Naples dialect my grandparents spoke. My grandmother used to tell me I spoke like a princess when I called her; she could understand me but often I couldn't understand her. Now it's chic to be a hypenated-American... How things change.

Still, I think the British linguistic abilities are heads and shoulders above most Americans. I think the British and American failure to understand the need to be at least bi-lingual has much to do not only with a common history but also with relative geographic isolation. Continental Europeans have much more of a need to speak more than one language and their education starts early. Bravo for them.

When most people immigrated to the United States during the 19th & 20th centuries, they were forced to speak English (or at least their children were). I know that my grandparents isolated themselves in an Italian immigrant neighborhood and as a result my father and his siblings grew up in an Italian speaking world until they went to school (and it was a sink or swim situation) and then served as my grandparents' translators. My grandparents spoke limited English -- most of which they learned from their children, radio, and later television. My generation wasn't raised to be bi-lingual because there was a sense of shame that was attached to speaking Italian: it marked you as not "American." And all they wanted to be was "American." I feel like I missed out on something special -- a way of preserving my heritage. :(

Of course, I learned Italian in school by choice but I learned Florentinian Italian in high school & college (along with French, and a couple of semesters of German) which really doesn't resemble the Naples dialect my grandparents spoke. My grandmother used to tell me I spoke like a princess when I called her; she could understand me but often I couldn't understand her. Now it's chic to be a hypenated-American... How things change.

Thank you for sharing this with me. :) I really appreciate learning about the history of immigration where people from around the world had settled down in an English speaking country.

It's a shame that you feel you have not done more to preserve your heritage, but don't give up, I am sure you have the solid grounding and time to perfect your Italian.

"I think Rania studied at the American University at Cairo and I think their teaching lanugage is English. :)"

She did but her accent is flawless.

one of my classmates at university was from Egypt and she attended the American university in Cairo before she moved to Canada, she had absolutely no accent either!
She said that a lot of their profs are American so that probably accounts for the lack of accent too.

King Abdullah and Queen Rania's kids also speak English along with Arabic. They have english speaking nannies and go to English schools.
Infact English is almost like a second first-language to the members of the Jordanian royal family which is not surprising since a lot of them have been educated in the UK and US.

(In response to two previous posts of others) - Yes, Victoria went to Yale. It was during her battle with eating disorders and her family decided it was a good idea for her to get away for a while.

With regards to Crown Prince Philpe of Belgium's English - it's TERRIBLE. I heard him speaking at an engagement while he and CP Mathilde visited Stanford. I felt sorry for the man, but it was awful. He said a grand total of 5 words per minute because he was so focused on the English, but the speech was right there in front of him. It was what I'd call a "train wreck" if I ever saw one.

I watched the Discovery programe on the Danish Family too. But to my ears Prince Frederik and his brother Joakim had poor english Their were words coming out of Fred's mouth I could not even make out:( . Prince Haakon was much much more fluent nicer voice too and Q M and even the older people spoke better.
Wittykitty

I saw a video of Frederik & Mary's wedding and Frederik spoke the English portion of his speech very well. It was almost flawless, but there was a definite hint of an accent. Queen Margrethe also spoke English very well in the English portion of her speech. She has more of an British accent when she speaks English, and I can see because of a post I read above stating she attened boarding school in England.

__________________

"One might say that Mary also belongs to you - but as of today: she belongs to me - and I belong to her." Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark to Crown Princess Mary on their wedding day.

I believe that Prince William does know a little Spanish from when he was in South America during his "gap year". I think he was in Chile if I'm not mistaking. As for Queen Elizabeth she speaks fluent French especially when she visits Canada.